In praise of ... the International Crisis Group

As the drones pounded Gaza this year, few foreign policy outfits would have bothered producing a report entitled "Guinea-Bissau: Building a Real Stability Pact". Yet the Brussels-based International Crisis Group finds time to devote to each crisis, large or small - and readers tunnelling through its dense analysis always emerge better informed. The ICG grew out of the perception that had the world could have done more to tackle Somalia, Rwanda and Bosnia in the 1990s if it had only seen them coming. It blew the whistle on Darfur, East Timor and northern Uganda before those conflicts erupted. It reliably provides cool analysis of major conflagrations within days of them breaking out - such as with the 22-day war in Gaza. Even more impressive, though, is its coverage of forgotten lands - including, in the few months since Gaza, Haiti, Nepal and Tajikistan. When the world's gaze moves on, the ICG stays, to monitor the unfinished business conflict leaves behind. There is nothing cut-and-paste about the research, the core relying upon the expenditure of copious amounts of shoe leather. This month's announcement that the heavyweight Louise Arbour, a former UN high commissioner for human rights, will be the group's new president underlines its determination to influence as well as inform. The body has grown to a full-time staff of 130 covering 60 countries or conflicts. That exceeds the foreign staff of all but the largest news-gathering operations. Long may it continue to thrive.